With a Boost of Field Lacrosse Experience, Canada Looking For U-19 Gold

They’ve been finalists four times, so Canada is looking to win its first U-19 gold medal by fielding an NCAA-heavy roster — 21 of 24 roster members played or will play college ball. As opposed to past years, the players on Canada's squad are more established in the field game than they are in box.

This spring, Saint Joseph’s University coach and former Team Canada defenseman Taylor Wray took over head coaching duties for Brodie Merrill, who’s expecting a baby. As both are defensively-oriented minds, don’t expect a big change in game strategy.

“A number of guys on defense are going to play high-level DI lacrosse,” says Wray. “That’s an area in Canada that’s seen a lot of improvement. Before, a lot of guys didn’t play with a pole in their hands. Now, they’ve been doing for it for a few years, and the athleticism is better.”

In warm-up action, Team Canada went 4-0. The team left Toronto on Sunday bound for Finland, where opening ceremonies are Thursday. Team Canada will be sporting jerseys that are replicas of Canada's 1978 world championship team.

Cornell’s Derek Searle and Marquette’s Tyler Gilligan anchor the close defense, while the team will lean on goalies Brennan Donville (Cornell) and Ross Bowman.

A good offense often is the best defense for Canada, though, and the team boasts several accomplished NCAA scorers.

“It’s a dynamic group,” Wray says. “In the past, we used to have a lot of similar players — off-ball guys, cutters and good shooters. Now, we also have more athleticism. They’ve seen the way the college game is played, which helps our experience.”

"We are going to play our game — high tempo, using our strengths in the transition game to our advantage and to play sound, team-oriented defense at the other end. You can expect to see some very exciting plays; our poles will look to get up field in transition, our midfielders will play at both ends and this will lead to a lot of transition and unsettled opportunities," Wray said on the team blog.

Wes Berg (Denver) comes off a tremendous freshman year, scoring 37 points for the Pioneers. Meanwhile, U-19 members Jesse King, Reegan Comeault and Turner Evans combined for 49 points for Ohio State during the 2012 season.

At the high school level, midfielders Joel Tinney (Johns Hopkins) and Kyle Trolley (Notre Dame) led Culver Academy to an 18-3 record, while Deerfield Academy (Mass.) attackman Joe French (Georgetown) is a fantastic shooter who has been on the radar for three years.

Here's five players who have impressed in practices and warm-up games:

1. Wes Berg — The University of Denver standout has been as good as his freshman year with the Pioneers has advertised. He is big, fast and in recent warm-up games was scoring well from the outside.

2. Jay Lindsay — The Canadian face-off specialist has been winning 80% plus against a variety of competitors and is being well schooled by former World MVP Geoff Snider

3. Danny MacDermott — MacDermott has been the top close defenseman for Canada thus far after playing a leading role with NYIT over the past year. He has shown excellent one-on-one skills.

4. Jesse King — The Ohio State midfielder has proved very strong as a dodger and on groundballs.

5. Joel Tinney — TheJohns Hopkins commit has been a top playmaker for Team Canada so far in pre-season play.

A portion of this article appeared in the July issue of Inside Lacrosse, which can be purchased here. Staff writers Geoff Shannon and Matt Kinnear contributed to this report.